REVIEW: Delicacy (La Délicatesse) (12A)

I like French movies. They tend to avoid the same mistakes as Hollywood moves (or even British movies) by not getting fixated with special effects and pampering to the egos of superstars. Instead, and I know this is a massive generalisation, they focus on storytelling, the narrative and character development. Maybe it's because they are made in much smaller budgets, or maybe they still care about the art of movie making and less the effect of it.

La Délicatesse is a delightful movie, full of emotion, and heart warming moments, as well as many moments of gent,e humour, and a great soundtrack that includes everything from rock and roll to faux Steve Reich minimalism.



Nathalie (played by Audrey Tautou)is a beautiful and successful business executive in Paris. Her life is just perfect, happily married to her soul mate. but then, suddenly she is widowed. She struggles to cope with her loss and, to the dismay of her friends and family, submerges herself into her work.

One day, though, she finds a new spark for life, from a most unexpected quarter - her rather awkward and plain looking office junior, Markus (François Damiens).

Markus is initially stunned at Nathalie's interest and, over time, their relationship moves from awkward to loving, but they have a bigger battle - dealing with the reaction of others to their romance.

Markus starts off seeming odd, peculiar, and, perhaps, even a little creepy. He is unused to female attention but the affection the two characters develop is delightful and charming.

Yes, it's subtitled, and if you don't like reading subtitles there's no easy way round that (unless you happen to be fluent in French, of course!), but I think it's definitely worth the effort of reading them. This is a good movie that develops characters you care about and that are believable. No explosions, no monsters and no mega budget blockbuster but a lovely movie to while away a couple of hours and give you hope for the human spirit.

One final word of praise has to be for the QUAD in Derby where I went to watch this movie - probably the best cinema in the East Midlands and with a great café bar too.